


Trauma

by WordsOfHeart



Category: Life Is Strange 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Affection, Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Canon Compliant, Concussions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Grief/Mourning, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Multi, Nausea, Protective Siblings, Sickfic, mentions of vomit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27087238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsOfHeart/pseuds/WordsOfHeart
Summary: After the events in Haven Point, Sean is left with a very severe concussion.As Karen drives them to Arizona, Sean's side effects from the trauma get worst and worst.Or-The story taking off right after the end of episode 4.
Relationships: Daniel Diaz & Sean Diaz, Daniel Diaz/Sean Diaz, Sean Diaz & Karen Reynolds
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	1. Confusion-

**Author's Note:**

> Hi loves,  
> For the ones who have read my Life Is Strange one shots so far, you know just how much this game has f*cked me up.  
> My emotions have been everywhere for the past month so I kept writing in attempt of feeling better.  
> Soooooo, I always wished we got to see what happenned in the car while driving to Arizona. Sean got hit so many times, it's only logical for him to have a concussion right ? 
> 
> So yeah, here's my take on it.  
> Hope you enjoy Xx

The sun is slowly setting as they drive down the road to Arizona in comfortable silence. Karen pulls her attention off from the deserted route for an instant, only to turn her head to the side, wanting to check on her older son. His head is resting into the seat, his uncovered eye is shut and his forehead is creased, probably from the pain knocking against his skull. She swallows roughly, feeling horrible for what had just happened to both Sean and Daniel in Haven Point.

Convinced that Sean is fast asleep after being severely concussed, she gently presses one of her hands on his thigh, giving it a light squeeze. What she doesn’t quite expect is for Sean to gasp into a sitting position, looking around in fear. She quickly removes her hand.

_Trauma_ , she thinks.

"Shit. I didn’t mean to scare you."

Sean looks around himself, quite confused. It takes him a good minute to remember where he is and where they are heading to. After coming back to his senses, he exhales deeply and pushes himself back into his seat, bringing a shaking hand to the top of his head and rubbing it gently.

Everything is spinning around him.

The one-sided conversation is enough to pull Daniel out of his slumber. He sits up and immediately wraps his arms around his big brother from behind. Sean relaxes as he feels Daniel’s presence, his safety being all that mattered.

"Sleep. I’m right here." Daniel whispers against his ear and Sean’s body relaxes. He slumps back comfortably and squeezes his eyes shut, praying that his horrible headache would soon pass.

For what seems like another half hour, everything is back to calmness. Daniel has achieved to go back into slumber. Sean on the other hand is still half awake, starring ahead. He keeps swallowing the thick saliva forming in his mouth in attempt to push away the nausea that keeps bubbling into his stomach. Ever since Karen had accidently woken him up, he’s been feeling like shit.

His head is hurting badly and there’s this horrible buzzing sound that keeps ringing in his ears. Sean knows Karen has noticed his discomfort because she keeps shifting to look back at him, but he ignores her, trying to focus on keeping his lunch down. It takes another fifteen minutes of stillness for Sean to realise that there is no way he is going to make it to Arizona without being sick. His tanned face is now ghost white and he keeps rubbing his eye, unable to make the blurriness of the world around him disappear.

When Karen hits a small bump and the car slightly jumps, Sean’s heart stops.

"I need you to pull over. " He panics as he presses a hand against his mouth, wanting to stop the contents of his stomach from flying out.

Karen immediately understands what is happening. She makes a quick turn to the left that only leaves Sean gasping for air. As soon as she parks the car, Sean kicks the passenger’s door open and falls to his knees onto the concrete with a thud. He retches for a few moments before he feels warm bile climb up his throat. Before he knows it, he is bringing up everything he had eaten this morning, which thankfully, wasn’t that much.

Karen looks at her snoozing son in the rear mirror and hesitates on getting out of the car. Sean had allowed her to help clean his eye, so she tends to think that he will maybe want her help now as well. It is hard knowing the limits of what she could do and what she shouldn’t. When she realises that Sean is not getting up from the floor after multiple minutes, she decides to follow her instinct. She walks out of the car and stands awkwardly by her son who is still heaving.

Sean slightly lifts his head up, feeling her presence. Problem is, he can’t focus on anything and his eye keeps rolling around, unable to recognise Karen, even if she is inches away from him. The sight breaks Karen’s heart, enough to convince her to get on the ground right by her son. She presses her hand against his back and slowly rubs circles between his shoulder blades. He tenses up at first, but when she feels his shoulders slump foreword, she feels relieved.

Sean rubs his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt. Everything is spinning around him and he feels so nauseous he doesn’t think he’ll make it back to the car on his own. For an instant, he doesn’t even remember where he is and why everything hurts so badly.

"M-Mom…?" He asks out without even noticing the power of the name he had just given to her, voice breaking mid way. There’s a tear threatening to fall in the corner of his eye and it brings Karen back to when her 8-year-old boy would wake up with a tummy ache in the middle of the night.

The uncommon name is enough to make Karen realise just how confused Sean is. The many hits to his head must have caused a quite severe concussion. Sadly, they couldn’t get any assistance from a doctor without being caught. Therefore, she needed to be the adult here and improvise something that would at least get them to Arizona.

"You’re alright Sean…Can you tell me what’s happening to you? " She asks, careful not to speak too loud.

Unable to form a proper sentence, Sean slowly falls against her lap and it makes her stiffen. She doesn’t remember the last time she held her son. She can’t help but feel like an intruder, knowing very well that Sean wouldn’t allow such a thing if he currently had all his mind. She bites her lip and allows her fingers to gently run through his short hair, caressing the boys scalp ever so lightly. Sean is shaking lightly, unable to control his body from reacting to the pain throbbing against his temples.

For a few moments, they are completely silent and Karen even wonders if Sean has fallen back to sleep. She is pulled out of her thoughts rather quickly when a small whimper escapes the boy’s lips, pushing his face deeper into his mother’s lap. Once again feeling cut off guard, she stiffens. When she looks to the side, she realises Daniel has now joined them. He is sitting on the other side of Sean, small hand finding his and holding it. She smiles slightly at the scene, thinking to herself that Esteban had done a wonderful job raising both these boys.

"What is happening to him?! " Daniel asks with a large frown and a panicked tone, not liking the sight of his brother acting so vulnerable. He had never seen such a thing. Sean was always the strong one and now he seemed completely disconnected from reality.

"He is just very confused baby. He received so many hits to the head I’m actually surprised he didn’t feel sick before right now. " Karen explains softly, not wanting to scare Daniel too much with complicated medical terms.

"Is he going to be alright? H-He’s crying...Sean never cries… " Daniel asks again, refusing to let go of his brother’s hand. He feels so guilty, knowing that if his brother is in such a bad shape, it is mainly because of him and his stupid attitude. He knows very well he should have never believed Lisbeth in the first place.

"He is going to be fine, but I’m going to need your help okay?" Karen tries smiling, slightly pushing a tear away from Sean’s check. His eye is closed again, but his tensed features confirm that he is still in quite some pain.

In fact, Sean feels like someone is trying to burst his skull open with a hammer. The intensity of the headache he is experiencing at this moment is similar to the horrible ones he got when he first woke up from his coma after the incident at the farm.

Daniel nods at Karen’s request, nervously looking up at her.

"We’re going to help him rest in the backseat and you’re going to stay right by him while I keep driving. We probably have another hour drive before getting to my trailer. I’m going to give you a bag, just in case he needs to be sick again. I need you to be the big brother for the rest of the drive Daniel. "

Daniel bites back tears because the way his mom is speaking scares him quite a bit. He just wants his big brother to be okay, but he feels like maybe that won’t be the case if they don’t make it to Arizona soon.

"Of course. I’ll take care of him. " He ends up saying, wrapping his arms protectively around his brother’s shivering frame. "You hear that Sean? I’m right here…I’ll keep you safe. You’re going to be okay; I promise. "


	2. Exhaustion-

_Getting back in the car turned out to be way more of a challenge than Karen had first anticipated. Lifting himself up from the concrete and walking back to his seat was not on option for Sean. He could barely stay awake and every time he tried to move; his stomach threatened him to turn. The pain in his skull was driving him insane and it took all the concentration in the world not to pass out on the ground._

_With the sun setting quickly and the darkness creeping up on them, Daniel and Karen had no other choice but to pull Sean’s limp body up against them and drag him into the backseat of the old vehicle. Karen grabbed a thick blanket from the trunk and gave it to Daniel, who carefully wrapped it around his older brother’s shivering frame in attempt to soothe his tremors._

_And now here they were, moving quickly along the deserted highway, praying that they would make it to their destination without other inconveniences._

Karen keeps a steady eye on the road, trying to ignore the level of the gas tank that keeps dropping. They still have a good forty-five minutes to go and, deep down, she knows there’s no chance they will make it without stopping.

The silence around her is haunting and even though it’s driving her insane, she doesn’t dare to speak. It’s dark all around and she can’t quite catch what is happening behind her, but she knows that Daniel is in control of the situation and it is enough to keep her going a little longer.

The more she drives down the same boring road, the more she feels the exhaustion invade her. Karen must fight the sleepiness away, not wanting to cause an accident.

On the other hand, Daniel is wide awake. Sean’s cheek is pressed against his thighs and even though he can no longer feel his legs, he doesn’t dare ask him to move. In his sleep, his brother keeps letting very faint whimpers of discomfort escape and the light sounds surprise Daniel every time. He even catches himself wishing that he could transfer all his brother’s pain to himself, tired of seeing Sean suffer so much because of his bad choices.

Every time the car hits a bump, Daniel wraps his arms a little tighter around Sean, just to let him know that he is not alone. He makes sure that the blanket is tightly wrapped around his brother, worried that he would catch a cold on top of everything. He is shivering really badly, and Daniel has no clue how to stop it.

As time passes, the gas keeps dropping and Karen bites her lip, trying to think of the right way to announce their unplanned stop to Daniel. She sighs, deciding to go through with the honest truth.

"Sweetheart…I’m going to have to take the next exit. "

Daniel jumps slightly at the affirmation. They had been in a comfortable silence for a while and he wasn’t expecting for his mother to speak so suddenly, especially not to inform him of a random change of their itinerary. Everything around them is pitch black and it makes Daniel feel uneasy.

"I know it’s dumb to stop so close to our destination…but we’re almost out of gas and the stations are pretty rare around here. There’s one in five miles, we need to go, or we might not make it. " She explains, trying to keep a soothing tone not to frighten her son once more.

Daniel frowns as he looks down at his still snoozing brother, knowing their stop could only go both ways: _amazing or disastrous._

"Will it be open? There’s no one on the road and it’s pretty dead around here. Everything is so dark."

"I sure hope so Daniel…I sure hope so… " She sighs, nervously letting her fingers tap against the steering wheel.

Daniel gulps before taking a deep breath, having quite a bad feeling about all this.

"What if someone at the station recognises Sean? Or what if they see me and know what I’ve done to the church?" He asks, nerves bubbling into his chest.

"You both will stay in the car, and I promise to be as quick as I can. " She bites her lips nervously, thankful that her son can’t see how stressed she actually is. Daniel wants to say that she sucks at promises, but he decides to keep his comment to himself, simply nodding instead.

The route to the gas station seems infinite, but when Daniel finally catches onto the light of the sign ahead of them, he lets out a breath of relief.

Karen lets one slip as well.

Thankful to see that someone is still at the desk, she parks her car right by the tanks and turns around to face her son.

"In five minutes, we will be back on the road, okay? " She smiles at him lightly before taking the keys out of the engine. Daniel gives her a light smile in return and watches her carefully as she steps out of the car, not daring to leave her out of his sight…or at least, until Sean starts squirming in discomfort. In an instant, Daniel goes from totally aware of his surroundings to completely oblivious to anything other than his brother.

"S-Sean? Sean! You’re alright. Hey…shh…shh…" Daniel panics, tightening his grip around him. "You’ll be in a super comfortable bed in no time and mom says she knows someone back at her home that can help you feel all better in no time. I think we can trust her this time. " He tries to explain, unsure if Sean could even comprehend the complexity of the sentences he was forming.

"E-Enano?" Sean grunts as he attempts to open his eye. When he does, he quickly catches onto Daniel’s worried orbs which leaves him with a pinch to the heart. He wants to say so much more, but the words won’t form properly in his mind, so he decides to stay silent instead. When he finally notices that the car is no longer moving, he tries sitting up, but Daniel quickly pushes him back down against him.

He doesn’t insist, but Daniel catches onto his confusion, immediately speaking again.

"We stopped at a gas station because the car was about to run out of fuel. Mom should be back soon. She promised. " He explains with a spark of innocence, offering Sean a light smile. "I really think things are going to be okay. The story of the wolf brothers will have a great ending Sean. " He excitingly admits, hoping that it would be enough to convince him and that it would give him the strength to fight through whatever horrible pain he was feeling.

When he is left with no response, Daniel frowns, wondering for how much longer his brother would suffer.

"W-What can I do to help Sean…?" Daniel’s small voice echoes through Sean’s mind, alerting him that his little brother is on the edge of tears. Sean concentrates, focusing all his remaining energy to reassure his brother and form a proper sentence. 

"Remember what dad would do when you didn’t feel good? " Sean carefully asks, sound of his voice barely audible.

Daniel nods through his sniffles, chocking back on his tears.

_He was so scared._

"He would lay down with me and run his fingers though my hair until I felt better. Even if it was in the middle of the night. Dad is…I mean…Dad was…magical. " He swallows hard, memories with his dad still so fresh and wound still deep open.

"Mhm…" Sean nods in approval, reaching out for his brother’s hand. "Will you do that for me Daniel? " He asks, already feeling sleep taking him over.

Sean doesn’t have to ask him twice.

Daniel quickly takes the blanket and pulls it against himself as well this time, wrapping an arm around his brother. He then lets his small fingers gently caress his brother’s scalp, carefully twirling them around the top of his head, just like his dad would do for him.

When Karen makes it back into the car, Daniel has almost forgotten that she was gone in the first place, lost in his moment with Sean. She smiles at the sight of both her sons curled into each other and she turns the keys into the engine.

"In twenty minutes, we’re going to all be safe in a warm bed. " She sighs out in relief.

As Sean keeps shivering, Daniel really hopes she’s right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who have read my fictlet so far.  
> I really enjoy writing hurt and comfort, so I hope this fills your heart with a little warmth.  
> There is one more part left ! Xx

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos make my day, what can I say ? 
> 
> Beaucoup d'amour, 
> 
> Sabrina Xx


End file.
